This view is from
inside the rail entrance to Birkenau. The building it passes through is the
main SS guardhouse. Notice the windows in the tower. You may recall the scene
in the film "Schindler's List", where the women are brought into Auschwitz
at night with a large spotlight shining alongside the train. For a view of it
from behind the light above the ramp see [link].
The object
at the bottom of the frame, near the track is a rail switch. For explanation
see [link].

Scrolling right
you see the road where prisoners were marched to and from work, and the brick
barracks of BIa, the first half of the women's camp. Then, further on, where
victims just off transports walked to the gas.

The rail track
is the major vein leading to the heart of the Nazi massive murder system. To
it flowed trains from all over Europe; north, south, east, and west. There were
other extermination centers, to be sure, but this was by far the largest in
area and scope.

As you scroll a
bit further, you see the entire length of the ramp, almost 3/4k. Moving again
to the right is Quarantine in the men's camp, BIIa (see Birkenau Map). For a
painting depicting the ramp in the time of the Nazis, see [link].